CAT 2020 Analysis by Endeavor Careers: Slot 1, 2 and 3

CAT 2020 question paper was of moderate difficulty level, with tricky VARC and relatively easy QA. Read CAT 2020 Analysis by Vijitha Kamath of Endeavor Careers.

CAT 2020 Analysis by Endeavor Careers –  Hope in pandemic times! CAT 2020 took off on a good note with students’ anxieties and anticipations of the expected format and pandemic arrangements addressed positively. Not only were the arrangements smooth with COVID-19 regulations strictly observed, the test also did not throw major surprises in terms of number and types of questions.

Read below, in-depth CAT 2020 analysis including section wise difficulty levels, topic wise distribution of questions, number of good attempts and expected CAT cut off percentile.

CAT 2020 Slot 1 Question Paper Break Up

The overall format of the CAT 2020 question paper was as follows:

Sectional	Total number of questions	MCQs	Non-MCQs
VARC	26	21	5
DILR	24	20	4
QA	26	18	8

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Section wise CAT 2020 Analysis Slot 1

CAT 2020 exam was conducted in three slots, and the difficulty level of every slot was similar. Apart from miniscule difference, there was no difference in the question papers of slot 1, 2 and 3. Read below, CAT 2020 analysis of slot 1. This article will be updated with slot 2 and 3 analysis soon.

VARC Section

With 18 questions spread across four RCs, this section provided some challenge to the candidates. The RCs were around 450 to 550 words in length, with two RCs carrying five questions each and two RCs carrying four questions each. The density of language and the closeness of options required students to spend more time reading them and regressing to get the answers. The RC topics were:

• Science – the evolution of elephants and seals to an improved biological state
• Political Science – a discussion of anarchism with reference to European anarchism versus American anarchism,
• Language – language, grammar and communication
• Economics – textile as currency

 The questions ranged from inferences, main idea questions, except questions, strengthen to parallel reasoning.

The VA section had eight questions, three summary of around 100 words each, three parajumbles with four sentences each, and two Out of Context with five sentences. This sub-section was easier in comparison and had five non-negative key-in questions.

Question type	No. of questions	Topic	Difficulty level
RC 1	4	Science	Moderate
RC 2	4	Language	Moderate to Difficult
RC 3	5	Political Science	Difficult
RC 4	5	Economics	Easy
Summary	3	-	Moderate
Parajumbles	3	-	Moderate
Out of Context	2	-	Moderate
Total	26	-	Overall -Moderate

Good attempts in VARC: 17 -19

DILR Section

DILR section of CAT 2020 showed a slight departure from previous years in terms of number of questions per set. This section had a total of 24 questions with three sets of four questions each, two sets of six questions each.  A set with six questions hasn’t been seen in recent years. The easiest of the sets was the one based on Set Theory with four variables. It carried four questions. Another set on Set Theory which was moderate, was mixed with puzzles type data. It had two questions on maxima and minima. The third set with four questions was on puzzles with partial data given. Each question had additional data. The sets with six questions each were logic-based DI, one of which was easy, and the other lengthy.

Question type	No. of questions	Topic	Difficulty level
Set 1	3	Set Theory -4 variables	Easy
Set 2	3	Set Theory + Puzzles	Moderate
Set 3	3	Puzzles -with additional data	Moderate
Set 4	6	Logic-based	Easy
Set 5	6	Logic-based	Difficult
Total	24	-	Overall – Moderate

Good attempts: 13 -14 questions

QA Section

QA section of CAT 2020 was the standard textbook sectional with a neat balance of question types. With a total of 26 questions, QA had eight non-negative, key-in questions. The 11 Arithmetic questions covered almost all topics. The eight to nine Algebra questions focused mainly on Functions, Logarithm and Quadratic equation. In addition, there were three to four questions of Numbers and three questions of Geometry.  Interestingly, Permutation-Combination and Probability questions did not appear in CAT this year. The overall difficulty level of this section was moderate.

Question type/Area	No. of questions	Topic
Arithmetic	11	All topics
Algebra	8 -9	Focus on Functions, Logarithm, Quadratic Equation
Numbers	3-4	-
Geometry	3	-
Total	26	-

Good attempts: 14-15 questions

CAT 2020 Analysis Slot 2

The overall format of the slot 2 paper was as follows:

Sectional	Total number of questions	MCQs	Non-MCQs
VARC	26	21	5
DILR	24	18	6
QA	26	18	8

VARC Section

Once again, VARC section continued to trouble students. With 18 questions spread across four RCs, this section provided some challenge to the candidates, with speculation that they were slightly more difficult than the RCs of lot 1. The RCs were around 450 to 550 words in length, with two RCs carrying five questions each and two RCs carrying four questions each. Like slot 1, the density of language and the closeness of options required students to spend more time reading them and regressing to get the answers. The RC topics were energy and environment – investing in renewable energy technologies, international trade – piracy in international trade, psychology – Freudian models of aggression, and philosophy – a study of visualization. The questions ranged from inferences, main idea questions, except questions, strengthen, to parallel reasoning.

The VA section had eight questions, three summary of around 100 words each -slightly more difficult than those of slot 1, three parajumbles with four sentences each, and two Out of Context with five sentences each. This sub-section was easier in comparison and had five non-negative key-in questions.

Question type	No. of questions	Topic	Difficulty level
RC 1	5	Energy and Environment	Moderate
RC 2	4	International Trade	Moderate
RC 3	4	Psychology	Moderately Difficult
RC 4	5	Philosophy	Difficult
Summary	3	-	Moderately Difficult
Parajumbles	3	-	Moderate
Out of Context	2	-	Moderate
Total	26	-	Overall -Moderate to Difficult

Good attempts: 16 -18

DILR Section

The slight departure from previous years in terms of number of questions per set continued in slot 2. With three sets carrying fourquestions each, and two sets carrying six questions each, the 24 questions of DILR had three sets of LR and two sets of DI. There were also six non-negative key-in questions.

Question type	No. of questions	Topic	Difficulty level
Set 1-DI	4	Election in 4 constituencies (incomplete table of votes polled)	Moderate
Set 2 -LR	6	Seminar Scheduling (allocation & distribution type)	Moderately Difficult
Set 3 - LR	4	Parking slots	Moderately Difficult
Set 4-LR	4	Three Colour beads on 5X5 Grid	Moderately Difficult
Set 5-DI	6	Sales figures at a store	Difficult
Total	24	-	Overall – Moderately Difficult

Good attempts: 13 -14 questions

QA Section

QA section slot 2, with a total of 26 questions, continued the balanced distribution of questions across arithmetic and algebra. Arithmetic had about 10-11 questions, with almost all topics represented. There were 9 -10 algebra questions, two to three questions on numbers and four questions of geometry. Slightly time consuming, this section nevertheless, was moderate overall. With the right selection of questions, a student should have been able navigate through this sectional easily.

Question type/Area	No. of questions
Arithmetic	10 -11
Algebra	9 -10
Numbers	2 -3
Geometry	4
Total	26

Overall difficulty level: Moderate

Good attempts: 15 -16

CAT 2020 Analysis Slot 3

The overall format of the slot 3 paper was as follows:

Sectional	Duration	Total number of questions	MCQs	Non-MCQs
VARC	40 mins	26	21	5
DILR	40 mins	24	18	6
QA	40 mins	26	18	8

VARC Section

In slot 2 of CAT 2020, the VARC sectional was again a troublesome sectional, in comparison with the other sections but its difficulty level paled out. With 18 questions spread across four RCs. The RCs were around 400 to 550 words in length, with two RCs carrying five questions each and two RCs carrying four questions each. Like slot 1 and 2, the density of language and the closeness of options required students to spend more time reading them and regressing to get the answers. The RC topics were sociology – travel writing and feminism during colonial times, economics – the need for economic literacy in the general population, technology – screen time and undercurrents of social class, and philosophy – an analysis of human nature. The questions ranged from inferences, main idea questions, except and least questions, strengthen, to parallel reasoning.

The VA section had eight questions, three summary of around 100 words each, three parajumbles with four sentences each, and two Out of Context with five sentences each. This sub-section was easier in comparison and had five non-negative key-in questions.

Question type	No. of questions	Topic	Difficulty level
RC 1	5	Sociology	Moderately Difficult
RC 2	4	Economics	Moderate
RC 3	4	Technology	Moderate
RC 4	5	Philosophy	Moderately Difficult
Summary	3	-	Moderate
Parajumbles	3	-	Moderate
Out of Context	2	-	Moderate
Total	26	-	Overall -Moderate

Good attempts: 18 – 19 questions

DILR Section

The slight departure from previous years in terms of number of questions per set continued in CAT 2020 slot 3 as well. With three sets carrying four questions each, and two sets carrying six questions each, the 24 questions of DILR had three sets of LR and two sets of DI. There were also six non-negative key-in questions.

Question type	No. of questions	Topic	Difficulty level
Set 1-DI	6	Division of Rectangular Plot of trees	Moderately Difficult
Set 2 -LR	4	Venn Diagram for 4	Easy
Set 3 - LR	6	Casino-Points	Difficult
Set 4-LR	4	Blood sample - vial	Moderately Difficult
Set 5	4	Orders received	Difficult
Total	24	-	Overall – Moderately Difficult

Good attempts: 13 -14 questions

QA Section

The QA section of slot 3 paper, with a total of 26 questions, tilted the balance towards Algebra with around 11-12 questions from the topic.  This tilt also made the section slightly more tricky and time consuming in comparison to the previous two CAT 2020 slots. Questions on Numbers were also missing in this slot. The questions were distributed across Arithmetic and Algebra. Arithmetic had about 11-12 questions, with topics widely covered. Nevertheless, the QA section can be termed moderate overall. With the right selection of questions, a student should have been able navigate 14-15 attempts in this section.

Question type/Area	No. of questions
Arithmetic	11 -12
Algebra	11 -12
Geometry	3 -4
Total	26

Overall difficulty level: Moderate

Good attempts: 14 -15

CAT 2020 overall turned out to be a notch higher than CAT 2019, the pandemic and lockdown notwithstanding. Kudos to the CAT authorities on two counts: on being uncompromisingly qualitative, and on seamless COVID-19 safety adherence, over three slots, across the numerous centres, for over 2 lakh candidates. An exemplary exercise in management!

In the test takers’ favour was the respite offered by the familiar question types though the overall number of questions and time duration were changed. No surprises, except for the DI sets with six questions which would have been favorable to students.

CAT 2020 Paper Analysis: Predicted CAT score vs Percentile

Here are the predicted scores versus percentiles of all three slots of CAT 2020:

CAT 2020 Slot 1

Percentile	VARC	DILR	QA	Overall
80%ile	25	17	19	57
90%ile	30	23	27	69
95%ile	35	27	33	83
98%ile	39	33	40	101
99%ile	42	36	44	106
99.5%ile	47	41	48	122

CAT 2020 Slot 2

Percentile	VARC	DILR	QA	Overall
80%ile	25	16	17	54
90%ile	30	21	23	66
95%ile	34	26	30	78
98%ile	38	31	37	96
99%ile	40	35	40	101
99.5%ile	43	39	45	115

CAT 2020 Slot 3

Percentile	VARC	DILR	QA	Overall
80%ile	27	16	17	57
90%ile	33	22	24	69
95%ile	37	27	30	82
98%ile	42	32	36	100
99%ile	45	36	40	104
99.5%ile	47	39	44	118

About the Expert:

Vijitha Kamath - Product Head - Verbal Ability, Endeavor Careers.

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